- When drug dealer Mickey mysteriously collapses while negotiating a sale, his partner-in-crime, Eddie, accompanies him to Princeton Plainsboro for treatment. But with a major deal pending, Mickey is not forthcoming with the necessary personal information the team needs to treat him. As Mickey's condition worsens, the team resorts to old-fashioned detective work to solve the case. Meanwhile, House and Wilson compete for the affection of a new neighbor, and Chase, Thirteen and Taub attempt to play a practical joke on Foreman.—FOX Publicity
- Open with two criminal-types discussing drug business in an underground parking lot. The conversation gets heated and their two henchmen end up wrestling over a gun. One guy gets shot in the foot, but it's the other man who ends up face down on the pavement.
House (Hugh Laurie) stitches up the criminal's (Mickey) head, telling him he was doing him a favor by keeping him out of the ER and its prying cops. Though House seems aware the injury is unique: no scrapes to indicate the guy tried to stop his fall, powder burns on his jacket, etc. Mickey (Ethan Embry) still gets up to leave. House then slams his cane loudly against the bed and Mickey passes out and drops to the floor once again.
House presents the loud noise-induced vertigo to the staff, along with the fact Mickey and his buddy were probably drug dealers of some level. With the CT scan clear, House thinks it might be the Mickey's ears or something related to drug use.
An attractive woman in Wilson's building is incredulous when he asserts he and House are not in a gay relationship.
Mickey's hearing is tested. During the test Foreman (Omar Epps) shows Taub (Peter Jacobson) a pay-stub of Thirteen's he found. Taub isn't surprised by what she makes but Foreman is.
Using obvious "code," Mickey's accomplice, Eddie (Nick Chinlund), tells House that Mickey doesn't have any direct contact with the cocaine they sell. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) pops by and tells House the other residents in their building think they're gay. Eddie said Mickey hated dealing with cocaine.
Cut to Mickey seizing in the chair during his hearing test.
The doctors think drugs aren't related to Mickey's issues. Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) suggests they check his arteries.
Foreman goes to Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) looking for a raise. She tells him he doesn't have a competing offer for leverage.
House still thinks the condition is drug-related and has bugged Mickey's hospital room.
They tell Mickey it will take weeks to figure out what is wrong with him and he requests a discharge. Thirteen and Chase (Jesse Spencer) then follow his car after he leaves the hospital.
House runs into Nora (Sasha Alexander), the woman Wilson likes, and tells her they are straight. He then opens an enormous framed poster of "A Chorus Line," and stands admiring it in a very gay manner.
Mickey is back in the hospital, this time rambling incoherently.
House thinks if Mickey has an infection it has now moved to his brain. We then learn the paycheck stub thing was a trick the team is playing on Foreman.
During a lumbar puncture Mickey tells Chase he knew they were following him. During the procedure Chase points out to Taub that Mickey's heart rate is normal.
Wilson confronts House about his new joke to pretend the guys are actually gay. House apparently now wants to make a move on Nora himself. Chase comes in and tells House about Mickey's heart rate remaining stable despite a needle being stuck into his spine.
House tells Mickey he knows he's been taking beta blockers. Mickey admits he's been taking them to control stress. House thinks Mickey was going through beta blocker withdrawal and might be producing extra adrenaline.
Eddie has been genuinely concerned and supportive throughout Mickey's ordeal, and it seems, while Mickey is married and straight, Eddie's care for his stricken associate has homosexual undertones.
Wilson comes home to discover House rubbing Nora's shoulders in just the way he had told Wilson he would make his move. Wilson grabs a seat to spoil House's game.
Foreman tells Taub he made-up another job offer and Cuddy called his bluff. He is now planning to leave the hospital after this case.
Wilson tries to tell Nora they are straight and House is pretending to be gay. She doesn't buy it.
The adrenaline idea is wrong and the gang is back to just vertigo and fever.
After Thirteen also has trouble getting House's surveillance equipment to work, House realizes Mickey must have a bug in there himself. Mickey is actually a cop.
Because of how big his case is, Mickey still refuses to give up any personal information about himself. They are a day away from a huge bust, the culmination of a 16-month operation. He asks them to keep him alive for 24 more hours at which point he will tell them anything they need to know to fix him. Eddie comes into the room and Mickey clutches his stomach and begins yelling.
Mickey had a GI infarction caused by a clot in one of his arteries. A foot of bowel has to be removed. With only environmental causes left Thirteen suggests they go through Eddie.
Thirteen asks Eddie to tell her where Mickey's been. He eventually agrees to show her where they've been working on the deal.
It turns out Mickey's been spending most of his time at a large dry cleaning plant. "A vat of poison," Thirteen says before taking samples.
At dinner with Nora, House complains about Wilson until she invites her to stay at her place. Wilson walks in and starts going along with the trick, proposing to House in front of the entire restaurant. When House says nothing, Nora leaves so they two males can have some privacy in which to work out their issues.
With Mickey now coughing up blood, they don't find anything from the cleaners to help. Chase, Taub and Thirteen aren't sure what to do about Foreman quiting because of their prank.
With four embolisms having popped up in Mickey's lungs over the last 12 hours they start him on anti-fungal medication. Eddie leaves the hospital for the big drug deal and Mickey apologizes "that I can't go with you."
Chase, Taub and Thirteen tell Cuddy they feel bad enough about the prank on Foreman that they want her to give him a raise and take it out of their paychecks. She agrees then tells them she hasn't seen Foreman in days and has no notion of what they are talking about. When they leave the office Foreman is there to tell them he was one step ahead of them.
Nora shows up at House's office. He admits to the games and she gets pissed. He convinces her she should give Wilson a shot. During this conversation House has his revelation.
House goes to Mickey's room and tells Mickey, Thirteen and Chase that Mickey has Hughes-Stovin syndrome. The doctors tell Mickey he is going to die and there is nothing they can do. it wouldn't have mattered if he had been up-front with them from the beginning.
We cut between shots of the deal getting busted and Mickey screaming in agony with his wife before dying.
Wilson tells House that Nora thinks they're both dirt bags and wants nothing to do with him.
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